Iconic South Florida furniture company Castro Convertibles returns

In 1948, 4-year-old Bernadette Castro first opened a sofa bed for TV audiences — and made it look easy.

She was the little girl in curls and a white nightgown demonstrating her father's company product.

Now at age 67, the former singer, political figure and child star is relaunching the Castro Convertibles furniture company with the concept that their product is still straightforward, even after more than 40 years.

"My dad was at the right place at the right time and took risks at the right moment. That's a tough act to follow," Castro said. "We want to take what he did, build upon it and recapture the baby boomers and the young people of this generation."

The original Castro Convertibles was in business from 1931 until 1993 when the family sold it to Krause Furniture, shortly after the death of Castro's father. In 2008, Castro began the process to reclaim the once family-owned brand.

Now selling exclusively online at castroconvertibles.com, the New York-based company showcases two convertible ottomans, one 33 inches wide and the other 39 inches wide. Just like her father, Bernard Castro, who ventured into advertising in the early days of television in the 1940s, Castro is hoping that marketing on the Internet will have the same success.

"When I see that the product is out there and that the brand is back, I think we will go further," said Castro, who doesn't rule out the possibility of expanding to a wider variety of products like a queen-sized ottoman or the original sofa beds and returning to the retail store level.

"But whatever we do always has to be better than what's already out there."

Castro still owns the company's property in South Florida, which includes the old Fort Lauderdale showroom on U.S. 1 now occupied by Ferguson Plumbing.

Her family's ties with the South Florida community "run deep," says Castro.

After attending Pine Crest High School in Fort Lauderdale, the heiress went on to graduate from the University of Florida with a bachelor's in broadcast journalism. She also volunteered as a little pink angel at Holy Cross Hospital.

"My dad loved it here," said Castro. "The same architect that designed the showroom for us ended up designing our home on the ocean. It was the first privately owned home on the beach in Fort Lauderdale."

Bernadette says her father Bernard, an Italian immigrant, made his start as a furniture apprentice in New York before starting Castro Convertibles in 1931.

"My father always had this flair for creativity," Castro said. "He would walk the halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and observe the fine furniture."

Many women would visit his reupholstery business looking to improve the style of their davenport sofas while also maintaining the convertible bed that was stored within, she said.

"It was obvious that the [davenports] did something because they didn't look like regular sofas," said Castro. "So what my dad revolutionized was having a sofa that didn't look like it opened up."

It was magical, says Castro, and so were all of the products that came after it.

Bernard Castro's furniture was based on having a function other than what was the obvious; he went on to make pieces like the chair with an ironing board attached and the convertible ottoman.

But it was the Castro Convertibles commercial that helped make the brand a household name.

The commercial played more than 40,000 times on the local stations in New York in the 1940s. As one of the first television advertisements featuring a child, Castro became the face of the company. Jackie Gleason and Milton Berle aired parodies of the commercial on their TV shows.

Castro went on to make an appearence on the "Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" and meet members of The Beatles due to her ad's popularity and a budding career in music.

After her time as a singer in the 1960s, Castro went on to pursue public office as the GOP opponent of U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1994. She lost, but was later appointed by former New York Gov. George Pataki as the state's parks commissioner.

But the furniture business was always around.

To this day, strangers who remember the commercial with little Bernadette and the convertible bed continue to recognize Castro and the story behind her.

She was recently stopped at an airport by a security agent who found out her name. He knew exactly who she was.

"I told him 'yup, I'm the little girl,' " she said. "That just shows the power of the brand."